Dave's Diary

Daily Reading: Matthew 23 and Psalm 23

Make no mistake, Jesus deeply loved each individual Pharisee, and He longed to gather them to Himself just as much as He longed to do so for the rest of Jerusalem (v.37). However, they were so filled with religious pride and arrogant self-sufficiency that they were blind to their need to be gathered to the Lord. It was not Him condemning them to hell (v.33), but their corrupt hearts had set them on a steady course of separation from God. Out of love, Jesus deeply desired to turn them back from that course with the series of harsh rebukes and ‘wake-up calls’ that we find in Matthew 23.

When Jesus denounced their pride and rebuked their hypocrisy, it was not out of a spiteful desire to humiliate them in the eyes of others. Far from it! It was out of a deep desire to see them repent of their sin and turn to Him so that He might rescue them. He was speaking some very harsh truth to them, but He was doing so from a place of very deep love. He longed for their repentance, not their destruction.

In commenting on Jesus cry of “Jerusalem! Jerusalem!” in v.37, David Guzik writes: “This heartfelt cry is another way to see that Jesus didn’t hate these men He rebuked so strongly. His heart broke for them. When we sin, God does not hate us; He genuinely sorrows for us, knowing that in every way our sin and rebellion only destroys our life.“

Life Application: It is pointless for us to read this chapter and scratch our heads at the blind hypocrisy of the Pharisees or of others around us today. That would be just as pharisaical as they were. Instead, we ought to examine our own lives and hearts for the sort of pride that pursues the approval, acclaim and applause of people (v.5), and for the sort of hypocrisy that presents oneself outwardly as very spiritual and righteous, but is inwardly filled with pride, greed, self-indulgence, evil thoughts, selfishness and violence – and is altogether lacking in justice, mercy and faithfulness. Let’s ask the Holy Spirit to shine His light on us today and help us to see our own need for His rescue from hypocrisy.